Biography

Joan Weldon

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A blue-eyed, chestnut-haired beauty, Joan Weldon trained to be a singer, and made her professional debut as a member of the San Francisco Opera Company. While appearing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company, she came to the attention of Warner Brothers, who took her out of grand opera and put her in horse operas (The Command (1954), Riding Shotgun (1954)), a crime drama (The System (1953)) and, most famously, the biggest and best of the "Big Bug" movies, 1954's Them! (1954). Amidst her movie roles, all of them dramatic, non-singing parts, Weldon sang at the Hollywood Bowl, on her TV series This Is Your Music (1955) and on tour in "The Music Man" (on tour for three years as the repressed Marian the Librarian). She and her husband reside in Manhattan.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>

Following her film career, which faded with the end of the Hollywood studio system, she returned successfully to the musical stage.
In her salad days, she joined the chorus of the San Francisco Grand Opera Company (the youngest to ever be placed on contract) and later sang with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company. It was during a performance with the latter that she was spotted for films by 20th Century-Fox. The studio subsequently passed on her but she eventually signed with Warner Bros.
Made a rare appearance in March of 2004 at a 3-D screening of The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953).
Worked for a telephone company at age 16 while also taking singing lessons.
In the book "Cars of the Fabulous '50s" in the 1953 Packard section, on page 169, there appears an ad for a contest to "Give Joan Weldon, young Hollywood starlet a new name." The winner was given a choice of a new 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible and a trip to Hollywood, or $7500 cash".

I was a singer, that was my first love.
I didn't think much of [the movie] Them! (1954) when I read the script. I just knew that [my character] was a scientist, and I was hoping that somewhere along the line there would be some romance or love interest. But [director] Gordon Douglas didn't want to refer to any kind of romance whatsoever. It was totally devoid of any interplay with anybody. The ants were supposed to be the star.
[on Edmund Gwenn, with whom she worked on Them! (1954)] . . . he was in great pain. He was crippled with arthritis. But when they said, "Camera! Action!", you'd never know that there was a thing wrong with him. He was just right there, and he'd move, and the moment they said "Cut!", he'd just crumble.